


The Pathway

by Scamasax



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Time Travel, looking for beta
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-03-31 18:23:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13980801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scamasax/pseuds/Scamasax
Summary: After a darker outcome at Bespin, Luke makes a final bargain. Time travel.Looking for beta





	1. A Pathway to many abilities some consider unnatural (Supreme Chancellor Palpatine)

’Are you sure?’ The deep voice asked one final time. ’There will be no going back once this is done.’

"I knew someone who did." Luke cannot stop himself from replying, turning slightly to keep the other in his vision. It was possible to turn back from this road.

He had seen it happen.

’And how is he now?’ The voice inquired mercilessly. ’The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be… unnatural.’ The figure stopped its pace and tilted it head slightly. Luke could not see its eyes under the heavy hood, but he felt the gaze on his skin as an uncomfortable cold sensation. ’But there is no going back once you start.’

The figure reached out a hand dipped in shadows. Like fog, darkness collected around it and trailed all the way down to the dusty stone floor in a curtain of the darkest black.

’Do we have a bargain?’ The voice finally asked, as the fingers on its out held hand stretched eagerly towards him. Shadows curled around it in a way that reminded him of the last smoke from a burned out fire. Smoke around something that was almost gone.

His heart skipped a beat, and his mouth suddenly felt dry. He did not want to do this… but what choice did he have?

This was the only pathway left. His last remaining choice.

He had to do this, but still he could not bring the words over his lips.

He felt a gentle tug, a pull back to the open door behind him. He wanted nothing more than to obey it. Despite the fact that he knew it would be selfish, and the fact that he knew there was nothing up there he could return to.

This was the only way, and the last chance he would get to set things right. In comparison, the price was…

Fair

He took one last shaking breath that unwillingly made his heart skip a beat, and held out his hand.

’Remember, Jedi,’ The voice cautioned mockingly, as its owner's cold fingers closed around Luke's wrist. ’If you tell anyone who you really are, I end this little game, and the price remains the same.’

***

It did not feel like falling back into something that once was. It was nothing as comfortable as that. It felt like stone fingers closing around him and dragging him through a storm of knives. Wind that was not wind ripped against him, and blades of ice dug into his skin.

He was pulled down, not back, and the darkness became deeper and deeper.

It was hard to breathe.

Then it felt like he was thrown. The ground rushed up against him, he heard something crack, a scream, and then everything stilled. The hands were gone, and the wind died.

’Remember the rules’. A disembodied voice warned at the back of his mind. ’You only have one chance.’

Then he opened his eyes.

The first thing he noticed, aside from the stinging smell of burned metal, was another stench; almost like it, that he would recognize anywhere. Blaster fire. The hum of his lightsabre registered a second later, activated on instinct.

The green glow lightened the dark hall he found himself in.

He frowned, and lowered the green beam looking beyond it to the sea of droid parts that laid scattered all over the floor. He had come late to the party it seemed, wherever this place was. He narrowed his eyes over the green blade with an uncomfortable twist in his chest.

He was here.

It had worked.

The lightsaber was brought low to light the nearest parts of mechanics he had only ever heard about in history books, or found in ruins on his many travels.

Almost nothing of this ancient technology had survived to his own time. Even ripped apart before him, he could recognize the design. These were battle droids dating back to the clone wars. Only they all looked new, or had been moments before.

He lifted the saber over his head, casting light upon the ceiling and the many wires above. The engines hummed gently beneath his feet, and little light-bulbs of green and red blinked back to him from the dark above.

He was on a ship, he realized.

Then the ground moved, a rumble echoed all around him. Everything tilted, the parts slid past him on the floor, ramming into the wall in a deadening metallic chorus.

An explosion.

The battle was still ongoing.

He threw a look back into the dark, the meagre light from his saber revealed only a blank and empty room as far as his eyes could see. He turned ahead, to the path littered with broken battle droids and walls blackened with blaster bolts… and burned carved scars that looked like it had been made with something...

Something that could literally cut a path through steel. His eyes widened, then fell on his lightsaber.

Of course.

He took off into the dark, and left the hallway empty. He had to hurry.

There was so little time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading :)


	2. "Those who use the dark side are also bound to serve it." (Darth Revan)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am in need of a beta. If you are interested in helping me proof-read this story don't hesitate to contact me :)

’Are you sure you know what you are asking?’ The figure leaned almost casually back against the stone monument, its edges looking sharp as a knife's edge. ’This has never been done before.’

"If you can't do it." Luke snapped, sending the dark figure a glare. "Say so and stop wasting my time." 

He knew the agony from what was left of his right hand was making him short tempered but it was difficult, so difficult, to stay composed.

The assault of feelings that the figure projected were overwhelming.

The anger, the fear and the hate.

It felt…

Cold.

’Oh! Such anger from a Jedi!’ A laugh rumbled from the figure. The smile under those yellow eyes was entirely too wide and showed many teeth. ’I did not say I wouldn't do it, but this is a dangerous game.’ 

The figure pushed away from the monument and closed the distance between them.  
The cold that had felt like a distant chill, became colder and colder as the figure closed in.

Just like last time he faced a Sith.

When-

Luke grimaced as the memory returned full force. The memory of the sounds, the horrible smell, the pain, the dark and the terror when she-

No!

Don't think about that now!

’What we are about to do.’ The figure suddenly explained as it leaned in far too close for comfort. Close enough to make Luke's skin crawl. 'Is the darkest side of the Force. If it is not done exactly right, it means the void for the both of us.’ The dark figure narrowed its eyes.

’I would not even consider it, if not for the prize you are offering.’ The figure opened and closed its hands while the silence fell back around them in the enclosed space that had not heard a living voice in an age. ’There are many rules to this and many things that can go wrong.’ Then as if compelled by an afterthought, it added.

’I will survive. At any cost. Will you?’

***

The hall had become completely empty, if not for a few droids in bigger or smaller pieces that were scattered all over the floor. Luke walked faster and faster, but the hall seemed endless.

His hurried footsteps echoed against the walls in the oppressive lifeless darkness. Nothing living had crossed his path yet, not a droid or a humanoid of any shape.

He was alone in the dark

'Maybe this is not the past', a treacherous part of his mind added unhelpfully to his unease. 'Maybe this is just some empty underworld. Maybe this is not real.'

Then mercifully, there was an opening in the wall. It revealed another path, a walkway that cut across the one he was in. He walked closer and came to a full stop in front of the wide opening. It resembled a tunnel, the celling was lower, but the light was much brighter than the hall he had woken up in.

The lamps ran in pairs in the ceiling over a floor that was for every third step replaced by a see-through iron grating. He was careful not to get caught in the glow that came up through them when he threw a look back down, but he saw nothing moving beneath.

Still… his cloak dragged after him on the floor as he stepped around the grating, and walked closer to the wall where the grating did not reach.

He wouldn't risk something suddenly coming at him from below.

Then he heard it.

His head snapped up, eyes staring down the pathway. Violent sharp sounds rumbled in the enclosed  
space, appearing out of nothing. The sounds of shots fired, and it was very close.

He took off as fast as his feet could carry him. The lights rushed past him. Relief and anxiety warred within him when he sent his force focus ahead, and zeroed in on a blinding force presence up ahead.  
It was familiar, but still so very different.

Old Ben.

Only, he didn't feel old, Luke realized without slowing the pace. He had remembered Ben as a bright presence of light and comfort… but it was nothing compared to the strength of the presence he was closing in on. 

Ben's signature was nothing next to this younger version of him. Ben had been more broken by what had happened than Luke had ever realized back home in his own time.

Luke's brow furrowed in determination. That future would not come to happen.

Not if his scheme succeeded.

It was only when he saw the flashing of blue, that he felt the other presence. A presence he did not recognize at all, because it had been destroyed around the time he had been born, but Luke knew who it belonged to.

Anakin Skywalker

A man Luke had never met.

Not really.

But he was the man Luke had come this far to save.


	3. If you wish to become a complete and wise leader, you must embrace a larger view of the Force.” (Chancellor Palpatine )

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so it begins

_The stones didn't seem to be really stained by the blood, Luke noted almost absentmindedly. The colour suited the ancient stones a little too much, like the floor had been made to mimic this exact shade of red. He narrowed his eyes at it, needing the distraction from the cold around his wrist and the knife._

_He resisted clenching his fingers at the sticky feeling of warm liquid slipping between them._

_'It had already feasted.' The figure explained calmly and cut again. 'That before was just a formality. A precaution.' The hand around Luke's wrist pulled him closer. Compared to those unnaturally cold fingers, the knife's edge felt warm. 'We start on the cloak now and this will be the hardest, no one has ever tried taking a Jedi back through the ages before.'_

_"I thought you said no one had ever tried doing this before at all." Luke said, and hissed at the pain when the knife's edge bit him again._

_'You are putting words in my mouth. I did not say no one else had **tried** , because many have tried before. I said no one had **done** it. Succeeded' It looked up briefly from its grim work. 'But it is true that no one has ever tried with a Jedi. This is heresy what we are about to do, according to your order.' It lowered the hand and cut once more, deeper but slower, and with greater care._

_"Why should it complicate matters that I am a Jedi?" Luke asked, equally disgusted and shocked by the precision of those lines. He did not want to know how long it took to get such skill in such a grim craft, or how many people that knife had tasted. "This ritual is designed to take a force user back. What I am should change nothing."_

_'Yes and no. There is nothing preventing a Jedi from going back, but it does complicate matters." The figure paused in thought and continued after a breath. 'The issue is that only a Sith can perform the ritual, and sustain It.' The figure stroked Luke's shaking wrist gently in mock comfort. It made Luke feel sick. 'And there is only so long that the dark side can directly power someone, without them… turning.'_

_Luke did not imagine the eager smile that ghosted the figure's lips._

_"I am stronger than you think." Luke said with a conviction he had not felt for the longest time, and grimaced when the pain returned._

_'Not that I am one to advocate for the light side, but I do hope so.' The figure said in a voice so calm it was eerie, considering what its hands were doing. 'Because if your signature changes too much, I will no longer be able to hold on to it, and we both know what happens then.'_

_Luke nodded even if he did not really understand the concept the figure kept repeating. The void. It just sounded like another way to die. Not that he was not afraid of death, but there were worse things than dying._

_'This ritual can only take one back within their own existence.' The figure continued. 'And **only** if they are covered by another's force signature the entire time from **this** time-line. In this case, mine.'_

_The cold fingers around Luke's wrist tightened to point where it for a moment became more painful than the knife digging back into his flesh. 'My force presence will cover yours and hide it. Everyone you meet will not sense your presence at all, they will only feel mine.'_

_The smile widened again under those yellow eyes. 'And I am no Jedi.' It paused, letting the words sink in._

_"…You are telling me." Luke said slowly with his face carefully blank, but his heart beating faster and faster in horror. "That when I go back I will look like-"_

_'A Sith. Yes.'_

 

_***_

 

The flashing of blue against the assault of blaster fire was gone from one moment to the other when the steel doors slammed shut. Luke's heart missed a beat when muted sounds of combat sounded from the inside.

 

The droids on this side, the big, unfamiliar and hulking things continued shooting a moment longer, as if they had no registered that the targets were out of reach for now.

 

It was frustratingly confusing trying to make out what had happened on the other side of the door in all that noise, but the two bright spots in the force remained, as far as he could sense, safe and unharmed. The sounds on the other side of the doors stopped, he noted with relief.

 

Finally, the droids stopped firing at the exact same second, as if compelled by some unspoken command. Still as statues, their aim remained on the door that had been scorched black and dented brutally under the heavy assault.

 

Somehow the complete silence that descended now was even more deafening.

Luke pressed close up against the wall, shielding his borrowed force presence in case they could somehow feel him. It was unlikely, but he was not about to take anymore stupid chances based only on his instincts. They had been a very poor guide so far.

 

The lightsaber was at the ready, the green blade was sheathed, but waiting eagerly for the command. It was an eagerness for battle he had never felt before, and words the Sith had told him echoed as a grim reminder in his mind.

_'There is only so long, that the dark side can directly power someone, without them… turning.'_

 

An old terror seized his heart, accompanied by the image of a tall dark figure with a sinister flash of red, and he forced himself to put the lightsaber away.

 

_No!_

 

He would not turn

 

He closed his hands, pressed his fingers hard into his palm to give him another focus as he battled against the cold sensation that was suddenly everywhere. It felt like frost spreading out from his chest. It was a stinging pressing sensation that made it hard to breathe.

 

It was not supposed to be happening this fast.

 

He was supposed to have more time than this!

 

He willed the feeling away. "There is no emotion, there is the Force." He whispered, and slowly, ever so slowly, the coldness bled away.

 

For now.

 

The clicking of metal against metal ripped Luke out of his panicked thought. The clicking signalled the droids departure a second before they moved… The same way R2 hummed slightly just before he sped off to somewhere, Luke remembered with a painful ache in his heart.

However, that was the only comparison between the two.

 

The way these things moved, reminded him of insects. Giant and dangerous insects. Until they snapped closed, transformed into a round shape and sped down the corridor. They practically flew past him close enough had he reached out his hand he could have brushed their hard shells with his fingertips.

 

The gust of wind in their wake was strong enough to blow a few errant strands of hair away from his face, but he barely noticed.

 

He followed the three shapes with his eyes all the way down the pathway with his hand hovering over the lightsaber, until the droids finally reached the end, turned the corner and disappeared from his line of sight. Then he turned his attention to the door.

 

...or what was left of it.

 

Even parts of the floor had been scorched black by the heat of the lasers. His footprints stood out disturbingly clear as he made his way to the gate his father and Ben had disappeared behind. He knew the hallway was empty, but the clear evidence that Luke had been here made him throw a look over his shoulder. The comforting light suddenly felt too revealing.

 

Like something was watching him.

 

Ignoring the prickle at the back of his neck, he kneeled down to the terminal at the side. Hacking it was so easy he for a second wondered if he had messed it up. Nothing had been this easy in the longest time. He had gotten used to everything being insanely hard.

 

Remember you are from another time. He calmed himself. This might be the best of the best technology right now, but you have gotten used to the ones back home. A lot of technological advancement can happen in twenty years.

 

The nothingness that met his eyes after the doors slid open was therefore strangely soothing. Difficulty, irritating as it was, also had a calming effect on him if only because it was familiar by now. Ripped out of his own time like this, right now he needed familiar.

 

The doors had revealed not a nothingness, but an elevator shaft he realized looking into the hollow space.

 

He leaned in just enough to look down into the open blackness beneath. The hole went further than his eyes could track in the darkness down there. Looking up, the same darkness looked back, but beyond, through the force, he could feel the two Jedi… and another colder one he did not recognize.

 

Then one of the two bright points in the force was snuffed out, and Luke's heart just about stopped. There was a roaring flash of anger through the force, and not from the cold presence, but from the presence belonging to his father.

 

This must be the moment, where it all started. When his father had started down the path to the dark side.

 

This could not happen again!

 

The elevator beside the empty one yielded even faster than the first one. The doors had barely begun to open before he was inside, pressing the buttons that would take him up to his father. He mentally urged the elevator to move faster, but otherwise his entire focus was on the battle he could sense through the Force. A battle that got more and more violent.

 

The coldness was almost overwhelming and felt like needles down his lungs even from this distance.

Was he already too late?

 

When the elevator finally came up to the right level, Luke's patience was at an end. The doors did not move fast enough, so he helped them. The doors crashed up against the walls and Luke flung himself out of the massive hole he ripped through the metal doors. The green lightsaber flashed into existence before his feet hit the ground.

 

He did not even know where he had ended up on this enormous battleship. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw other elevators to the side, but forgot them as he came into the biggest room he had seen so far in this place.

 

A gigantic window encompassed the complete far side of the room, giving full view of the battle fought outside and the rest of the room was covered with a grey almost black metal. Before the middle window was a pair of enormous red lamps that resembled trees slightly. Between them rested a large chair with a person was bound to it.

 

Just in front of it was a sight that made him come to a full stop.

It was his father, holding two lightsaber's to someone's neck. One of them was a friendly blue but the other was the terrifying recognizable red of a Sith. The man kneeling at his feet sat frozen, with what was left of his hands in his lap.

 

Only the man didn't have hands any more.

 

Luke's mouth went dry and felt an uncomfortable pain at his right hand, or rather, where it used to be.

 

This was where it had started.

 

This was where Anakin's slide into the dark side had truly began.

 

Luke felt the coldness in his father intensify as it grew stronger with every second. His father's arms tensed, readying for the kill. Anakin was going to do it, Luke realized and his stomach clenched.

 

Then he moved.

 

So intent on the kill, Anakin Skywalker did not feel the newcomer rush towards him until the very last second. A flash of surprise echoed in the force so strong it almost made Luke stagger. The blue lightsaber was thrown up in the fastest block that Luke had ever seen.

 

Luke's ambush would have been stopped, faster than it began

 

If Anakin had been the target.

 

The unnamed Sith hit the floor in a boneless heap. The green saber hovered above the man it had just killed. Anakin took a cautious step back, the blue lightsaber lifted between them.

 

Luke moved his Lightsaber into a controlled fighting pose and tightened his hold around the lightsaber so much his knuckles turned white. He forced himself to look past Anakin and too keep focus on the real target. The man in the chair that suddenly did not look so confident any more.

 

Darth Sidious.

 

One down, he thought and shifted the weight of his feet.

 

One to go.

 ***

To be continued

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading :)


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